Breakfast Burritos
The Attack of the Killer Breakfast Burritos!
One man’s feable attempt to wrap his hands around Central Oregon’s new belly-filling morning staple.
Don’t look now, but while you’ve been busy searching all the local coffeehouses and natural food stores for the last available Ocean Roll, our hungry high desert area has been taken over by another taste-bud-tickling, tongue-teasing temptation: The Breakfast Burrito.
On any given day before noon, virtually every café and coffeehouse in the region – and even a food truck or two – boasts a bountiful concoction of eggs, potatoes, cheese, peppers and salsa, all neatly tucked in a warm flour tortilla. Many chefs jazz up the flavor with bacon, ham, chorizo, beans or grilled veggies. And some push the boundaries even further with other savory ingredients and sauces inside or out. But one thing is for sure. There are so many choices, you’ll have a hard time picking your favorite.
So my quest each issue is not to try rate them in any particular order, but to give you a taste of the vast variety of breakfast burrito options out there, share some of the chef’s secrets, and let you draw your own conclusions.
If you are a fan of breakfast burritos as I am and have a few favorites already, by all means, share them with me and I will be happy to feature there at some point. But to kick things off, we have to start with the place that has quickly made a name for itself as the Boss of the Sauce, serving nothing but breakfast burritos: a bright yellow food truck on NW Greenwood called Burrito Sunrise.
As the name suggests, Burrito Sunrise, starts dishing out breakfast burritos by the dawn’s early light at 7:00 am. And for us late risers, it keeps right on cooking until 1:00 pm. It’s closed both Sunday and Monday, so Chef and Owner Devin Kennedy can take a well-deserved break.
Much like yours truly, Kennedy was exposed to a lot of great Mexican food while growing up in southern California.
“Breakfast burritos were always a staple and I ate a lot of them,” said Kennedy. “Upon moving to Portland, I had a difficult time finding places that did them well, or at all. I started a routine of making them myself, then for my construction coworkers pretty frequently. I came up with the idea then.”
He developed his chops at culinary school and decided to quit construction and make a go of it in Bend about four years ago. Eventually, he found a good deal on a truck and it finally clicked when he moved to his current location on NW Greenwood on the corner of NW Hill.
Burrito Sunrise has been voted “Best Breakfast Burrito” two years in a row by the readers of The Source and it’s easy to see why for two reasons:
- The variety of the menu. In addition to The Plain, a tasty vegetarian burrito loaded with egg, hash browns, chipotle black beans, jack & cheddar cheese, grilled onions and peppers and sour cream, Burrito Sunrise offers no less than five meat options, including Ham & Bacon (The Hog), Carne Asada, Cilantro Chicken, Chorizo and Chile-infused Ground Beef. More often than not, you’ll find Tri-Tip or Carnitas as a Daily Special option as well. All of them are fabulous!
- Consistent flavor and texture. Instead getting some bites that are mostly dry potato or beans, every bite throughout the tortilla wrap is flavorful and moist, and you don’t end up with a soggy, drippy mess at the bottom. You can literally eat it with one hand while you’re driving and not even need a napkin. That’s pretty amazing!
“My burritos are unique because they are constructed in layers and each layer is treated with care,” says Kennedy. “My eggs are done up French omelette-style with the proteins integrated. The salsas are emulsified like a sauce. The potatoes are seasoned and cooked with bacon fat. It’s simple and rotated quickly.
“I wanted to make sure I had maximum consistency. A lot of places you’ll get something different every time.”
While no one was specializing in breakfast burritos when Burrito Sunrise started, Kennedy acknowledges that the competition is pretty strong these days.
“My advantage is that I put all of the focus into the only product that I sell,” he says. “Other spots have various breakfast/brunch items or maybe lunch and dinner service to worry about. But focusing strictly on breakfast burritos allows me to have a great system that ensures quality and freshness.”
Sunrise Burritos start at $9 for The Plain. If you are meat-lover, you’ll pay $10 or maybe $12 for the other options – a very fair price for the size and quality. Kennedy has some exciting plans up his sleeve for the future. But for now, there’s no better place to begin your Tour de Breakfast Burritos in Bend and Beyond.
